US Congressman Krishnamoorthi calls on Biden admin to release AstraZeneca vaccine doses to hardest-hit countries including India

Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi on Saturday (local time) called on US President Joe Biden's administration to release doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to countries currently experiencing massive and deadly surges in the spread of COVID-19, including India.

"We are currently sitting on close to 40 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the US stockpile, a stockpile which we're not using and which we've already opened to combat COVID 19 in Mexico and Canada," Krishnamoorthi said in a statement.

"In order to curb the spread of this virus internationally and to protect public health and our international economy, we need to get these vaccines out the door now. I respectfully but strongly call on the Biden Administration to release millions of AstraZeneca vaccine doses to countries hardest-hit by the spread of COVID-19, including India, Argentina, and potentially others," he added.

India on Saturday recorded 3,46,786 new COVID-19 cases, the highest single-day spike since the pandemic broke out last year. According to the official data issued by the government, the country recorded 2,624 new deaths due to COVID-19 in the last 24 hours.

So far, 1,66,10,481 COVID-19 cases have been reported in India while 1,89,544 people have succumbed to the viral infection.

Currently, there are 25,52,940 active cases of COVID-19 in the country.

( With inputs from ANI )